Carol Thatcher was rebuked for revealing her mother had dementia, but it is nothing to be ashamed of

This Sunday is World Alzheimer's Day, an annual event, and it's happening this year at rather an encouraging time. It is encouraging not because of any great breakthrough in the diagnosis or treatment of this terrible disease, but because sufferers and their relatives are increasingly willing to talk about it.

Carol Thatcher was harshly rebuked in the Daily Mail last month for revealing in a book that her mother, Margaret, had been suffering from dementia for at least eight years: columnist Amanda Platell, a former press secretary of William Hague, accused her of "betrayal" and of not "contributing anything other than prurience to her mother's personal and political legacy". But Platell's comments suggest that she, like many others, still regards dementia as something to be ashamed of, whereas those directly affected by the condition are desperately keen that no stigma should be attached to it.

One such is Diana Melly, widow of the writer and jazz singer George Melly, who had a very tough time looking after him when he had the disease. "If more people talked openly about dementia, the people who care for [its victims] wouldn't get so lonely," she has said. "I think keeping it a secret adds to the loneliness."

This was a consideration that prompted Ronald Reagan in 1994 to reveal that he was afflicted by Alzheimer's. In a touching letter to his "fellow Americans", he said he knew that he was going to become a heavy burden on his wife Nancy. "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience," he wrote. "When the time comes, I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage."

Before he died last year, Melly followed Reagan's example by coming clean about his dementia. He was rather skittish about it, claiming even to enjoy it because, he said, he was a surrealist and dementia was a surreal experience. He nevertheless took Diana's trials seriously enough to give his last concert, three weeks before his death, in support of the charity For Dementia which runs a nursing service, called Admiral Nurses, for its victims and their carers. Diana turned to them for help as she struggled to take care of George, which involved stopping him going out on his own, endlessly searching for his things, reminding him to eat and drink, and coping with his uncharacteristic fits of aggression. They were, she says, a "godsend", and now she is a patron and fundraiser for the charity.

Author Terry Pratchett not only informed the world that he had a rare form of Alzheimer's but also described his experiences of it on several radio and television programmes. Like Reagan, he disclosed his condition at an early enough stage to be able to talk lucidly and with good humour about it. Pratchett said he was "taking it fairly philosophically" and "possibly with a mild optimism", and that he was "scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along". This is a spirit that gives encouragement to the afflicted and comfort to the carers, while also stimulating public interest and support.

It would have been good if Margaret Thatcher, as a patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, had been able to do as her friend Reagan had done and not left it to her daughter to spill the beans. But then she has never been one to admit to any kind of frailty. As it is, we owe it to Carol that the public now understands that dementia can strike even the clearest and most ordered of brains.

Margaret Thatcher's case was invoked this week by a fellow patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, who appealed in a letter to the Times for the state to end the "national disgrace" of its measly expenditure on dementia research (3% of its medical research budget on a disease that already costs the British economy £17bn a year).

Pauline Perry, another Conservative member of the Lords and a former Chief Inspector of Schools in England, wrote that she had recently sat at lunch with the former prime minister and found it "sad to see how she struggles with everyday conversation". As Perry said, dementia "can attack anyone, no matter how famous or clever".

The event most likely to relieve the gloom of the financial crisis is the coming vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. It will be hugely entertaining to see how the seasoned old senator copes with the ferociously ambitious and wildly popular "hockey mom" who makes a virtue out of her lack of Washington experience.

"I will take issue with her ideas as strongly as I possibly can," Biden has said. "I will be unrelenting in my debate," he promised. "But I will not do what she is able to do so well ... I am not good at the one-line zingers." Happily, "one-line zingers" may have had their day. When people are deeply worried about their jobs and prospects, they are likely to be less tickled by jokes about pitbulls and lipstick. It's reassurance and authority they will be looking for, and this, one hopes, will give Biden the advantage.

If anything good is to come out of the banking meltdown, it will be the fall from grace of Palin, whose record reveals her as lacking in both substance and consistency - a "fiscal conservative" who as mayor of the little town of Wasilla raised taxes and expenditure by more than a third; a campaigner against cronyism who, both as mayor and governor of Alaska, ruthlessly fired experienced staff and replaced them with her own cronies.

But, to be fair, she is consistent about some things - killing polar bears, for example, drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and allowing mines to pollute salmon streams. On Wednesday she won the Rubber Dodo award, given to her by the The Centre for Biological Diversity, for crimes against the environment.

This week Alexander's ignorance of "credit default swaps" and "triparty repo" undermined his efforts to understand the world banking crisis, but he enjoyed the Last Night of the Proms on TV: "A blatant attempt to promote the Union with contributions from every corner of the British Isles. But the swaying, flag-waving promenaders seemed much older than they used to be."

About this article

Alexander Chancellor: Carol Thatcher was rebuked for revealing her mother had dementia, but it is nothing to be ashamed of

This article appeared on p9 of the G2 section of the Guardian
on Thursday 18 September 2008.
It was published on
the Guardian website
at 19.01 EDT on Thursday 18 September 2008.
It was last modified at 19.10 EDT on Thursday 18 September 2008.
It was first published at 19.10 EDT on Thursday 18 September 2008.